The Used Car Job
by Cleopatra21780
Summary: When the team gets hired to bring down a faulty autoparts maker, Nate brings in a car thief to help.
1. Biting The Bullitt

**The Used Car Job**

**Disclaimer: I own NOTHING, except Layla**

**Rating: ****T nothing that wouldn't really be in the show.  
**

**Chapter 1**

Nate watched in amusement as she wondered through the auction house. She was focused, tuning out the noise from the rest of the crowd, causing him to wonder what her target was. He continued to observe her as she passed Germans, Italians, a few British, until she stopped at the Americans. He grinned. Some things never change. He slowly made his way over to her. When she didn't acknowledge his presence he grinned.

"I have to admit they're beautiful." He started. "But then again I have a soft spot for American classics."

She froze as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, in truth she had been. Turning slowly she smiled slightly when she saw who it was.

"Nate Ford. IYS insuring…"

Nate shook his head. "I'm not here on that kind of business."

"What kind of business are you here on?" Confusion crossing her face.

"What if I told you I wanted you to steal a car for me?"

Her eyebrow rose to her hair line.

"Straight laced Nathan Ford wants me to boost a car?" She laughed.

"Things change." Nate replied seriously.

She took a deep breath as a heavy silence fell over them. This wasn't the same man that had chased her down a few years ago because she had boosted a 1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic Coupé from one of his clients. She focused on the shiny black 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 and sighed.

"Ok, lets say I do this. What do I get out of it?" She asked glancing at Nate.

Nate just smiled at her.

________________________________________________________________________

The team was gathered at Nate's apartment. Sophie and Parker were seated at the kitchen island.

"Nate say when he was going to be back?" Hardison asked from the couch.

"Now." Nate said as he opened the door, pushing someone in in front of him. Said person was a brunet, with red highlights and pale blue eyes. She was dressed in a pair of faded jeans, thick soled boots and a black Aerosmith t-shirt. She froze as she took in the team, only moving again when she felt Nate push her further into the room.

"Guys this is Layla Morrison. Layla this is the team." Nate said. Each one made an acknowledgement as he said their name. She took a seat next to Hardison on the couch.

"Where's Eliot?" Nate asked looking around for the last member of the team.

_Right here._ Eliot's voice buzzed in his ear.

"Eliot's staking out the mark." Hardison spoke up, knowing Layla couldn't hear the hitters voice.

"Ok guys I brought Layla here, Hardison," The hacker clicked a button on the remote and a picture of an middle aged man leaning up against a silver car. "to help us with Marc Miller. Mr. Miller here owns Linden Automotive Parts."

"I've heard of them. Supposed to be really good." Layla nodded replying distractedly.

"And they were when he first started, but since then he's been cutting corners left and right." Hardison replied. "Recently he started scavenging worn out parts buffing them up and making them look like new. Six months ago a car outfitted with some of Linden's parts failed going sixty-five miles per hour."

"The crash it caused killed a sixteen year old girl." Nate replied looking down at Layla.

"The family tried to sue Miller but by the time an investigation was started Miller had managed to cover himself." Sophie spoke up.

"Our goal is to get the family the settlement they need shed light onto what Miller's doing." Nate smirked. "And you are our in."

"You want me to steal that?" Layla giggled and pointed to the car on the screens.

Nate nodded.

"You know what that is?"

Nate nodded again.

"We all know what that is. It's a car." Parker informed her. "And I thought Nate said you knew what you were doing."

Layla sighed and rolled her eyes. Nate had given her a slight heads up on the blonde thief.

"That is not just a car. That is an Aston Martin DB5. A little over a thousand were made between 1963 and 1965. It was the same car James Bond drove in Goldfinger. And if I'm lucky that's an estate." She smiled up at Nate. "They only made twelve of those."

"Ok so we're all caught up. Hardison fit Layla with a comm., Eliot head on back. Tomorrow you're going to help Layla steal a car."


	2. 60 Seconds to Go

**When Eliot walked into Nate's apartment the next morning he found Hardison talking in depth to a strange woman on the couch. Nate was leaning across the kitchen island drinking a large cup of coffee, observing like usual.**

"**Hey man." Hardison acknowledged when he saw the hitter walk in.**

"**Eliot this is Layla. Layla this is Eliot." Hardison introduced, smirking as the two looked each other over then nodded.**

"**What do have Eliot?" Nate asked.**

"**Photos of the car," Eliot replied pulling out a manila envelope handing it over to Nate.**

**Layla was up and had the photos in her hand before Nate had a chance to look at them. She just smiled as she spread them out over the counter.**

"**You could have asked." Nate told her crossing his arms over his chest.**

"**You were going to give them to me anyway." She replied shifting the pictures again. "How did you get these anyway?"**

"**Hardison said he and Parker were from a classic car enthusiast magazine." Eliot said with a smirk.**

**Layla just shook her head. The car looked simple enough, nothing really out of the ordinary. He had had an alarm installed, but it was a simple by-pass. She was pleased the photos were very thorough.**

"**Now this isn't right." She muttered to herself.**

"**What isn't right?" Nate asked as both he and Eliot leaned over to look.**

"**This," She pointed to the trunk picture. "The interior doesn't match the rest of the car."**

"**How can you tell?" Eliot asked. To him it looked all the same dark color.**

"**Hardison can you bring up the photo you showed me last night of the car." Layla asked.**

**Hardison pulled up the picture of Miller leaning against the car.**

"**Now pull up the photo you and Parker took of the car."**

**Once again Hardison brought up the picture request.**

"**Put them side by side." Layla asked. Her brow furrowed as she studied the photo's . "Damn."**

"**What?" Eliot asked.**

"**He's done something to the trunk. The back end in your photo is lower than it is in the this one."**

**Hardison looked at her with his mouth open for a moment then went right to work typing on his laptop.**

"**I don't believe this. She's right." Hardison shook his head. "Damn girl how'd you do that?"**

"**I know cars Hardison." She replied simply, before turning on Nate. "You knew this." It was a statement not a question.**

"**Sophie's been posing as an administrative assistant for almost two weeks at Linden. She's had complete access to Miller's office, and that was clean. Hardison went over his computer with a fine toothed comb and the only red flag that popped up was that he had some expensive work done on his car."**

"**That as far as we know hasn't been any kind of accident." Hardison replied.**

"**That's when I figured we needed to get a hold of that car. We needed you."**

**Layla sighed and rubbed her forehead, not pleased that she wasn't told the truth from the start.**

"**Ok, but Nate I get to keep the car when we're through." She informed him with a stern look.**

**Nate held up his hands in surrender. "You can do what you want with the car I just don't want to know."**

"**Deal." Layla**

**________________________________________________________________________**

"**Can I just say how nuts I think this is." Eliot informed the whole team from the stearing wheel of his truck.**

"**It could be worse." Layla said from the passenger seat with a smile.**

**Eliot just looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He almost didn't want to know at the same time it slightly intrigued him.**

"**How?" He growled.**

"**Could be more than one car?"**

**Laughter came across the comms from Hardison. **_**Sophie just got here so Miller should be on his way home.**_

"**When he gets here we'll slip in snag the car and get back in no time." Layla told them. "Just be ready with the gate."**

**Eliot huffed again and glanced at his passenger. She was securing her hair into a ponytail with a rubber band. He looked away when she smiled at him, having caught him staring.**

"**This is going to work you know." She told him.**

"**Let's hope you're right." Eliot muttered as he watched the silver car pull into the drive.**

"**Hardison, he's home. Let's wait a few minuets and then hit the gate." Layla told the hacker.**

_**I know the plan, woman.**_

**Layla laughed then looked over at Eliot. He was scanning the area, but was acutely aware of everything around him.**

"**I know what I'm suppose to do." Eliot told her.**

_**Now that we all know what we were suppose to do, can we do it.**_** Nate told them.**

"**On our way."**


	3. The Bandits Win

**Hey guys this is it for this one. Its not my best but I'm working on a new story. Review please.**

_The gate should open…now._ Hardison's voice buzzed in their ear as the gate to Miller's house swung open.

_You should have thirty minuets to get the car and get it out before his guard makes rounds. I also set his security cameras on a loop so no one's going to see you._

Layla and Eliot snuck around the corner and quietly over to the car. Eliot chuckled as he watched the car thief coo at the Aston Martin.

"Try not to bump against the car." Layla told Eliot. "I'm not sure how retentive his alarm is." She muttered as she reached for the door handle.

"Wait." Eliot's large hand wrapped around her smaller one, stopping it from touching the handle. "You just told me not to bump the car cause you don't know if the alarm's going to go off but you're going to open the door."

"Um, yeah." She nodded and opened the door.

To Eliot's relief the alarm didn't sound and Layla slid into the plush leather seats. She held her hand out to Eliot asking for the wire cutters. He looked up over her hip, as she was bent at an odd angle working with some sort of black box.

"Wouldn't it have been easier for Hardison to do that?" Eliot asked as she sniped the two wires coming out of the box.

"Yeah, but what's the fun in that. I mean it took some of the fun out of it cause he didn't have the alarm on or the doors locked." She told him, her voice muffled from the odd angle.

"What?" Eliot growled.

"You have to relax big guy." Layla smiled at him. "I didn't know that until I opened the door. Besides what's the one place you feel safe at? Most people don't think about locking their car doors at home. It's only after someone like me boots a car from the driveway that people start to lock their cars and usually only at night."

She shifted again this time to get under the dash. She wasn't going to hotwire the car until they were out on the street but she was going to be prepared when they did.

"Ok." Layla righted herself in the seat and smiled at Eliot. "You ready?"

_You guys have five minuets you better get out of there._ Hardison informed them.

"On our way now Hardison." Eliot responded as he braced his hands on the trunk of the car and started to push.

The car rolled easily down the drive as Layla steered and Eliot pushed. When they were on the street and slightly out of sight of Miller's drive Layla messed wires together and the Aston Martin roared to life. The sound caused Layla to giggle like a little girl. Eliot poked his head in the passenger side window.

"You know where to go?" He asked taking in the look on her face.

"Yep I'll meet you there." She grinned and peeled off down the road, barely giving Eliot time to move out of the way.

________________________________________________________________________

When Eliot arrived at the warehouse Layla was already there. The trunk door was open, a pile of dark interior carpet next to the car thief, who's hands were resting on her hips. Eliot slipped out of the truck and came to stand next to Layla.

"You know I've seen a lot of things people have done to their cars." She started. "Monstrous speakers and stereos, hiding places for drugs, but this is a first for me."

Layla pointed to the small safe that had been fitted into the car's trunk.

"Yeah me too." Eliot nodded. "Nate we're going to need Parker and maybe Hardison."

_They're on their way._ Nate told them.

"Come on we've got work to do." Eliot grabbed Layla by the arm.

________________________________________________________________________

_In breaking news the owner of Linden Automotive Parts, Marc Miller, was arrested to day when documents concerning his involvement in a fatal car crash turned up in a warehouse along with several stolen car parts…_

Layla smirked as she sipped her beer and the reporter finished the story.

"You did good darlin'." Eliot smiled at Layla.

"Thanks." She grinned. "Is it always like this?"

"Yeah pretty much." Parker nodded.

"Only sometimes way better." Hardison interjected.

"Or way worse." Eliot murmured.

"So in general it tends to be more on the fun side." Layla grinned.

They turned as Nate and Sophie approached the bar.

"The clients are pleased." Nate informed them with a smirk. "There's been an official recall of all Linden parts and the bad guys in jail."

"How did you end up with all the stolen car parts?" Sophie asked Layla.

"You'd be amazed what a little hack into the county's stolen vehicle report and a trip to the junk yard will do." Layla replied with a smile.

"We made sure to leave the list on top of the files." Eliot told them.

"It was a good job all around." Nate informed the group. "Hardison can set you up with a plane ticket back to Pittsburgh, Layla." He paused for a moment. "Or you can stay."

Nate smiled at the car thief, then wrapped an arm around Sophie and lead her away from the bar.

"So Pittsburgh, huh?" Eliot asked taking a sip of his beer. "There's a Steelers game on later."

"Bet the televisions get great reception." Layla smirked.

"The best." Hardison laughed.

"Might as well stay around then." She replied.


End file.
